张祖平

Scientists are building a powerful telescope1. It will help them see deep into space.

More than 400 years ago， Galileo Galilei built a telescope. He was an Italian scientist. He used the telescope to study space. Since then， scientists have used telescopes to make big discoveries. The Hubble Space Telescope was sent to space in 1990.

Soon， a new telescope will take over for Hubble. It is the James Webb Space Telescope. It is also called JWST， and Webb.

In 2019， a rocket will take JWST into space. The new telescope will explore farther into space than Hubble. It will give scientists a better view of the universe.

“Hubble rewrote astronomy2 textbooks，” Maggie Masetti told reporters. She works on the Webb project. “Webb is going to do the same thing.”

Like Hubble， Webb will look for galaxies3 far away. The telescope will also hunt for planets that are like Earth. It will do this by looking for light. Webbs mirror will collect light from objects in space. Its special camera and tools will be able to find light that the human eye cannot see.

In the future， there will be more telescopes like Webb. “By the time kids grow up，” says Masetti， “the things they learn about the universe will be totally different from the things we think we know now.”

It has been nearly 26 years since the launch4 of the Hubble Space Telescope. It has sent back more than a million pictures. Scientists have seen stars being born. They have studied faraway planets. Hubbles powerful eye has helped us understand space. The telescope still has 10 years of life left. What more will it find？

科學家们正在建造一个强大的望远镜，它将帮助他们深窥太空。

400多年前，伽利略·伽利雷造了一架望远镜。他是一个意大利科学家。他用望远镜研究太空。从那时起，科学家通过望远镜有了许多重大发现。1990年，哈勃太空望远镜被送入了太空。

很快，一架新的望远镜将接替哈勃，它就是詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜，也被叫做JWST或韦伯。

2019年，一枚火箭将把韦伯送进太空。这架新望远镜将比哈勃探索得更远。它将帮助科学家更好地观测宇宙。

“哈勃重写了天文教科书。”马吉·马赛缇告诉记者。她参与了韦伯工程。“韦伯将做相同的事。”

像哈勃那样，“韦伯”将搜索遥远的星系。这架望远镜也会用寻找光的方式来寻找类地行星。韦伯的镜面会搜集太空物体发出的光芒，它特制的镜面和工具将能够发现人类肉眼看不到的光线。

在未来，将会有更多像韦伯这样的望远镜。马赛缇说：“孩子们长大时，他们学到的关于宇宙的知识将和我们现在的认知完全不同。”

哈勃太空望远镜发射已近26年，它送回了一百多万张图片。科学家看到了恒星诞生，他们研究了遥远的行星。哈勃强大的眼力帮我们了解太空。这架望远镜还剩下10年的使用寿命，接下来它还会发现些什么呢？

Notes：

1. telescope n. 望远镜

2. astronomy n. 天文学

3. galaxy n. 银河；星系

4. launch n. 发射